Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/443

Rh discover, for the benefit of the longitudes at sea, the quadrature of the circle; his wish for a reward, and for a celebrity, which would so effectually promote his happiness, agitated him to such a degree, that, laying aside every thought of business, he exerted all his powers and faculties, and drew up his principles, such as they were, in battle array. He began to draw lines, to make calculations, and to resolve problems, cherishing, after a time, the idea that the discovery was not impossible.

Confined to this sole labour, he formed tables, circles, and other apparatuses, in the construction of which he went so far as to employ wood. He filled with numbers and geometrical figures many reams of paper, which he kept, turned over, and combined incessantly, until at length he became fully persuaded that the precious discovery was made. He was so highly delighted with his invention, that he announced it to the whole world. The incredulity of many persons, obliged him to have recourse to the professors and teachers of the mathematics, who, however strenuously he maintained that he was right, constantly pronounced his labours to be as defective as useless. These very attempts to undeceive him, had the effect of engaging him to lay out in paper, the bounties which his friends bestowed on him for his support, to the end that he might be enabled to continue his operations. In his distress, he consoled himself with saying, that a nobleman of the first distinction in the capital was indebted to him six millions of piastres, as a reward for the secret of the quadrature, which he had revealed to him. Every day he repaired to the house of this nobleman, and did not leave it empty-handed; insomuch that the efficacy of the impertinent claim of the maniac, and the